Cobe views the Milky Way in the Infrared light

The Cobe satellite, whose primary mission was the investigation of
the Cosmic Background radiation, a relict of the universe's violent origin,
the Big Bang, has obtained this image of the central region of our
Milky Way galaxy. As the obscurring dust clouds
within the spiral arms of our galaxy are far more transparent for the long
wavelengths IR radiation observed by Cobe, it has obtained a much clearer
image of the structure of our galaxy, exposing a prominent central bulge
and a very thin IR brilliant disk, where the interstellar clouds are
concentrated. Our galaxy clearly shows up as an edge-on spiral of type
Sb to Sbc (or maybe SBb to SBbc).